COLUMN: Replacing lost oil jobs is a generational challenge for Lafayette
Few will admit it out loud: What has been Lafayette’s most important economic sector will likely never recover the ground it lost.
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Louisiana
Reflections on Race: Black Louisiana — remembering who we are
We were already radical. Louisiana has historically been at the forefront of change.
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Conversation: Can Lafayette thrive beyond oil?
A generational shift that raises an important question: How can we replace the jobs we’ve already lost and those we stand to lose in the future?
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Reflections on Race: Once it’s up there it’s stuck there
We can’t say Black lives matter and still support industries that are a part of the problem.
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Louisiana schools used federal coronavirus relief to buy up thousands of tablets for kids to use during the pandemic and beyond. Many school districts have more tablets than kids enrolled. Lafayette Parish, for instance, has 40,000 Chromebooks for its 31,000 students. Connectivity, however, remains a big problem. Not every family has home access to the internet. Mississippi used CARES Act allocation to address that problem directly and was pretty successful at it.
Acadiana ‘really responded’ during February freeze
Hotel rooms arranged by local housing advocates kept hundreds of people warm during last week’s crushing freeze. Donations poured in across the Acadiana region. But the makeup of people in need underscores rising housing insecurity in the area.
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Reader Reactions: This is Lafayette
Overwhelmingly, respondents said recent press accurately reflected Lafayette and that our community is getting worse.
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Lafayette’s first Black woman school board president reflects on faith and community
Descended from pioneers in education, Morrison credits her success to the community she saw her family nurture.
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Reflections on Race: We are a resilient people
Every aspect of life in America is much better because of the talents, the work, the creativity and the culture of Black people.
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For two straight weeks, fewer than 5% of coronavirus tests performed in Lafayette Parish have come back positive, meeting the threshold to opt back in to limited indoor service for the first time since November. On Wednesday, Mayor-President Josh Guillory did just that, notifying the governor that he will allow Lafayette bars to re-open at 25% occupancy. Permitting loopholes and lax enforcement have kept much of Lafayette’s night life humming throughout the pandemic, with crowds piling up Downtown on weekends. But some big clubs will remain closed because of the low cap on occupancy.
All seven seats are now filled on a committee to study what city residents get out of Lafayette’s peculiar form of consolidated government. Five members were appointed for each district, directly by the relevant council member. And two more were appointed at-large by vote Tuesday night.
Here is the full list:
- District 1 — Joseph Catalon, landman
- District 2 — Mark Pope, former LCG environmental services manager
- District 3 — Roddy Bergeron, IT executive
- District 4 — Jan Swift, attorney and former director of Upper Lafayette Economic Development Foundation
- District 5 — Tina Shelvin Bingham, executive director of McComb Veazey Neighborhood
- At large — Stuart Breaux, former assistant city-parish attorney
- At large — Bill Leyendecker, retired LCG parks and recreation manager
The library system’s board of control, stocked now with ideological conservatives appointed in the wake of a string of controversies, will support an upcoming renewal. Just three years ago, the Lafayette Parish Library system was flush, sitting on $26 million in reserves and working with three property taxes. That hefty balance became a target for conservative activists, and a political campaign to defeat one tax renewal succeeded. Now, the system is operating at a deficit and with a much smaller reserve.
Via The Advocate